Tag Archives: books

I have always been my own worst critic. I grew up with self-esteem issues and a defense mechanism I learned at an early age was to always say worse things about myself than anyone else could. That way, other people’s opinions of me or my work wouldn’t hurt so much. Yes, it’s a terrible way […]

Independent authors have to do and learn and worry about things that authors with publisher backing can safely let slide. This isn’t an insult or a slight against traditionally published authors. Believe me, if I could go it the “easy route” and have a publisher worry about all these things, I would have. But part […]

Lately I’ve been noticing a trend in the way people communicate, at least in the way they communicate online. The only way I can describe it is “communication by meme”. The more time people spend online and the more their online activity becomes a part of their lives, the more they build up shared context, […]

When I open a fantasy book, the first thing I do is skim through the front matter to look for a map. I have always loved maps, the older the better. A map even features prominently in The Fifth Vertex as a crucial part of the plot. Maps give us an incredibly fast way of […]